By Brooke Brown

After a steady increase over the past 30 years, the number of women in the labor force has gone down in Utah, according to the government census bureau.

In 1970, the percentage of mothers in the workforce with children under the age of 6 was 30.7. The percentage had increased by 29 percent in 1990, when the same statistic was 59.7 percent.

Since then, however, the percentage has been slowly declining, despite the opposite trend in the nation as a whole.

"When mothers choose to have several children like ... [they] do here, it shows that they have a higher priority on family life," said Jeff Hill, a professor from BYU's Marriage, Family and Human Development. "The decision to work outside the home is a difficult one in Utah."

The decline in the percentage of working mothers in Utah reflects a change in attitude, Hill said.

"Research shows that now the reason the majority of women work is because the have to, where as 25 years ago, women worked because they wanted to," he said.

Hill said this points to an overall national lifestyle change that demands a larger income.

"Families today are more likely to have two to three cars instead of one," Hill said. "They buy larger homes [and] more expensive homes. ... Housing prices in Utah have doubled in the last four to five years, [which] ... causes pressure to have two incomes just to qualify for a loan -- in Utah Valley there is certainly that pressure."

However, many women today are becoming part of the "opt-out revolution," in which highly skilled women in the work place choose to be at home with their children rather than further their careers, according to the article "The Opt-Out Revolution," published in the New York Times in October 2003.

"Women today have the equal right to make the same bargain that men have made for centuries -- to take time from their family in pursuit of success," said Lisa Belkin, author of the article. "Instead, women are redefining success. And in doing so, they are redefining work."

Hilary Renshaw, who graduated from BYU with a master's in history teaching in 2006, worked full-time as a high school teacher for one year and then became a stay-at-home mom after the birth of her first child.

"I loved the people I worked with, my relationship with my students, and the gratification I felt from helping guide and mentor students in the right direction," Renshaw said. "But ... I didn't gain a sense of ultimate fulfillment in my job ... because I didn't feel like I was doing the greatest good ... in my career."

Renshaw said she found that fulfillment, however, once she became a stay-at-home mom.

"I was honestly scared ... because I knew mothers got so little credit for what they did," she said. "[But] I felt so much more fulfillment and joy in that role [as a mother], more than I ever anticipated. ... Knowing that you are changing and guiding a life ... No career could ever compare to that role."

The "opt-out" trend that Renshaw took part in seems to be catching on in Utah, where the decline of working mothers has not only affected the percentage of moms with children under the age of 6, but also working moms with children under the age of 18.

In 1990, 65.7 percent of mothers with children under 18 were in the work force. But in 2006, the percentage dropped to 62 percent.

More flexibility in the work place and a push for parents to spend time with their children are contributing factors in this decline, Hill said.

"My own belief is that parenthood is a short period and passes quickly and is a fragile period," said Stephen Bahr, a BYU professor of sociology. "It is important for both parents to plan their schedules so they can be with their children as much as possible."

Dane Nielson, a business major at BYU, said his mom never had a job while he was growing up, and even though he knows it is sometimes necessary for mothers to work, he thinks it is important for them to stay at home when possible.

"Moms have a hard job of making sure their kids are doing what's right," Nielson said. "My mom made sure I was doing homework and that the house was clean and that our house was just a good place to be. ... It's not like she was at home doing nothing. ... She turned our house into a home."

Still, even if a mother does have the opportunity to stay at home, employment is not the only factor that can interfere in a parent/child relationship, Bahr said.

"[One of my former students said] it didn't matter to him when his mother went to work as he didn't have a close relationship with her anyway," he said. "If parents do not have close relationships with their children, whether they work or not will have little impact. They need to focus on the relationship."

Copyright Brigham Young University 7 Jan 2008